East 105th: What difference a decade makes

There’s only two things that are the same in these two photos from
August 2014, top, and December 2023 at bottom. One is the street
address — 2200 E. 105th St. The other is the brownish 16-story
Walker Center which was the tallest building in the University Circle
area in 2014. Today it’s the third-tallest and nearly blocked out of
view by the Cleveland Clinic’s 3,000-car, 915,000-square-foot East
105th Parking Garage. At left is the new Medley Apartments over
Meijer grocery store. Across the street is the former IBM Explorys
building that may be the new home for Canon Healthcare research
 (Google/KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

For many Greater Clevelanders and visitors, they now enter the Cleveland Clinic’s Main Campus and the University Circle area on the new Opportunity Corridor Boulevard. But few traveled this way before the boulevard was completed in late-2021 and may not have a full appreciation of how much the scenery along their commute or visits have changed in less than a decade.

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Brooklyn Masonic Hall gets new lease on life

Residential and commercial leasing is underway for the new Lofts On Pearl
which is the old Brooklyn Masonic Temple in Cleveland’s Brooklyn Centre
neighborhood. Lakewood-based developer Kostas Almiroudis is moving
his offices onto the ground floor at left to focus on further redevelopment
of the area (KJP). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

A Masonic rehabilitation has a different meaning in Cleveland’s Brooklyn Centre neighborhood these days. At 3804 Pearl Rd., it means the renovation and repurposing of a 25,536-square-foot Brooklyn Masonic Temple into 26 market-rate apartments over two ground-floor commercial spaces bracketing the building’s terrazzo-, marble- and wood-laden lobby.

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Three big county projects about to advance

This is an unofficial conceptual massing (a rendering to show scale, not
design) of what a new Consolidated Courthouse could look like if built
near the lakefront at The Pit between West 3rd Street, at left, and West
9th Street, at right. In between, atop five levels of structured parking
and a layer of public atriums of shops and restaurants could be two
courthouse structures of nearly 450,000 square feet each. Such a com-
plex would not only meet Cuyahoga County’s requirements but also
provide stadium parking relocated from a to-be-developed lakefront
(Ian McDaniel). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Fifteen years ago, when the Great Recession could let someone go bowling down East 9th Street without hitting anyone, three major construction projects were about to get started and provide the city of Cleveland with much-needed economic stimulus. Back then, construction of the new Huntington Convention Center, the Flats East Bank redevelopment, and the new Inner Belt highway bridges represented a total public works investment of nearly $1.5 billion.

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Oswald HQ moving to Flats East Bank

Oswald Companies is moving its headquarters across Downtown Cleveland
to the former Ernst & Young Tower at Flats East Bank with an option for
future expansion in the same building. Oswald will gain naming rights to
the 23-story building (LoopNet). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Oswald Companies today announced that it has entered into a lease agreement to move its headquarters to a larger space at the former Ernst & Young tower on the East Bank of the Flats, a prominent fixture on the downtown skyline. Once all necessary approvals are received, the move will be completed in 2024 and plans include a name change to Oswald Tower.

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More international flights arriving Cleveland

Sangster International Airport is located just east of Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Starting in March, Cleveland will be just four hours away from this Carib-
bean destination thanks to the return of the first direct flights on this route
since 2017 (Shutterstock). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Joined by Cleveland airport officials, Frontier Airlines today announced that it will be starting nonstop flights to Montego Bay, Jamaica in March with an introductory low fare. The new, direct flight is the first new international flight from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport resulting from its new crew base there. But it may not be the last.

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Cuyahoga County’s economy surges

Multiple construction cranes preside over the Cleveland Clinic’s Main
Campus near University Circle. In the foreground is the site of one of
the largest building projects in Ohio — the 1-million-square-foot
Neurological Institute on Carnegie Avenue. It is eclipsed only by
the Sherwin-William headquarters downtown. In the distance are
two cranes for the Cleveland Clinic’s new Global Center for
Pathogen Research & Human Health measuring nearly 300,000
square feet (Courtesy, clevelandskyscrapers.com).
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

In the spirit of Oscar Wilde, one could say that a year’s worth of economic output data might be considered a curiosity. But multiple years may be considered a trend. Last year, the growth of Cuyahoga County’s gross domestic product (GDP) ranked 10th among Ohio’s 88 counties and was the best performer among Ohio’s most populous, urbanized counties. according to new data released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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Cuyahoga County OK’s first microgrid utility in USA

Compass Energy Platform was chosen to serve as the utility opera-
tor for Cuyahoga Green Energy to serve Greater Clevelanders
(Shutterstock). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

This week, Cuyahoga County has launched the first microgrid electrical utility in the United States. Cuyahoga Green Energy (CGE) has contracted with Compass Energy Platform to serve as the operator for the county-run utility.

Cuyahoga County Council unanimously approved the 10-year contract at its Dec. 5 council meeting. Together with $1.8 million of Department of Energy funding secured by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, Compass Energy Platform will bring its own capital and engineering partners to develop and finance the utility’s first three projects planned in Euclid, Brooklyn and the Aerozone region adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

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